Ford Brings Safe Driving Tech to the Masses

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A fully autonomous self-driving car may be only 13 years away
from occupying the garage of a typical American family, Bill
Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, has said.

In the meantime, simpler safety technologies found now in
higher-priced vehicles, such as drowsy-driver detection and
lane-keeping assist, can save lives — especially if they become
more widely available.

That will happen next fall, Ford says. The company plans to be
the first automaker to offer a plethora of such relatively
advanced technologies in a non-luxury mid-size sedan, the 2013
Fusion.

The list includes:

A lane-keeping system that uses a forward-facing camera to detect
when the car is drifting out of its lane, warns the driver by
vibrating the steering wheel, and steers the car back into its
lane if the driver doesn't respond.

A drowsy-driver detection system that also uses a forward-facing
camera to sense when the driver is steering erratically and
alerts him to stop and rest.

Pull-drift compensation, which detects whether a slope in the
road is causing the car to drift off course and gently steers it
back to the intended path.

Adaptive cruise control with forward-collision warning, which
uses a front radar sensor to measure the distance and time to the
vehicle ahead, slows or accelerates the car to maintain a safe
following distance, and warns the driver if the car is closing in
and a collision is likely.

Blind-spot information with cross-traffic alert, which uses
rear-corner radar sensors to detect other vehicles in the car's
blind spot.

Active park assist, which also utilizes the rear radar sensors to
find a space large enough for parallel parking and automatically
steers the car into it.

Each of those technologies is already available in other Ford
vehicles, and in ones offered by other automakers, such as Volvo,
Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz. But the 2013 Fusion will be the only
car in its market segment to offer all of these safety features
(aside from blind-spot protection, which the Toyota Camry has).

Ford has not announced the base price of the 2013 Fusion, nor has
it said how it will offer and price the driver assist
technologies (in packages or individually). But the car is
scheduled to arrive at dealerships sometime in the fall.